Jump to content

My first guppy tank


Recommended Posts

After taking down my first planted tank I decided with this one I wanted it to be easier to take care of and more focused on taking care/ enjoying my fish.

So I decided to go low tech instead of high tech like my last tank and I've gotta say I prefer lowtech much more, it just seems more natural and I feel more engaged with tank and that I notice every little change making me feel like I understand my tank and the ecosystem that it is much more.

The fish I decided to go with are guppies because I wanted something that I could easily breed and I hear so many people say good things about them. Now I understand why because I think they are my new favorite fish! They are just really cute and colorful and the are so much fun to watch and feed plus they breed easily, that's a win, win, win, win, win.

image7(1).jpeg.48ec24a81dd18b767ffa6f21538026e5.jpeg

This is the tank, its a 1 month old 10 gallon with crypts, anubias and hornwort. I'm using the new co op light and its growing everything really well! I still am not done with how I want it to look because I want to get a black background and I want the plants to fill in more.

IMG_1322.jpg.061730276fbf02b40948127d1e591753.jpgimage0(6).jpeg.becdd98e64aa0867ef4e4442ec660177.jpegIMG_1323.jpg.22d92f6a7034bd270095b03a17b18f45.jpg

The plants are growing really well and surprisingly fast (for slow growers) in my opinion but I do have some hair algae. I've Dialed the lights down, removed as much manually and started dosing some liquid fertilizer and that has made it almost completely stop growing but I still do have some so I'll probably get some amano shrimp to eat it.

image9.jpeg.8ce9598818439e9fcd76c1423365bff4.jpegimage6(1).jpeg.7a7dfc3ba1e314812fb4a535c7b67971.jpegimage3(2).jpeg.e1f0ecaaa51d39b3c77b8a9bf7207a67.jpegimage8.jpeg.c5d670de7857d2073bda0b1d80b1303e.jpegimage1(4).jpeg.9c46de4d9c572b370c3df7ddfa4736d3.jpeg

As for inhabitants I picked up 2 male and 4 female guppies from a local guy for 2$ a piece, He also gave me a sandwich bag full of hornwort for 5$ so I would say that's a pretty good deal for fish that have been raised in my tap water and are guaranteed to be disease free. I also have a goby that I've had for a long time living with them and some pest snails. I've really come to appreciate the "pest" snails in this tank because Ive really noticed how well they eat the converting crypt leaves and algae on the glass.

THEY HAD BABIES! after only a week of having these guppies they had fry! I'm really excited about this and if you have any tips on raising them I'd really appreciate it.

I'll probably update this as the tank changes but if you have and tips or recommendations id love to hear them also one question for everybody, should I get a couple more gobies so my goby has some company? because I'm pretty sure they are fry safe.

Also if you have any questions about the tank please leave them below. 🙂

 

image7(1).jpeg

Edited by Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics
  • Like 1
  • Love 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Feeding guppy babies is easy. Clearly you're supporting the coop brand despite how much harder it is up here in Canadia; I highly recommend their fry food, which I was surprised to see on April's site over the weekend. I love the ease of feeding, and the diversity of food particle sizes (but nothing larger than say 0.5mm). So there is plenty of powder for the baby babies, and some larger particles for the parents. And invariably enough will settle to the bottom for the goby dude. 

In general, I would recommend that you focus on feeding the fry, and trust that the adults will get what they need. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t think I’ll use the fry food right now because it cost a lot to ship and I would prefer to order some when I do a big order so I get free shipping, I don’t really need anything right now so I’ll wait to try it when I need more stuff like a new light. I can get good foods right near me from my lfs.
Do you think crushing up the xtreme flakes I got will be fine?

Edited by Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/1/2023 at 3:16 PM, Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics said:

Do you think crushing up the xtreme flakes I got will be fine?

This is perfect for guppy fry. I’ve done this exact thing with great results. Guppies are the King Kong vacuum cleaners of the fish fry world. As long as it’s nutritious and fits in their mouth you are good to go. 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/1/2023 at 3:16 PM, Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics said:

I don’t think I’ll use the fry food right now because it cost a lot to ship and I would prefer to order some when I do a big order so I get free shipping, I don’t really need anything right now so I’ll wait to try it when I need more stuff like a new light. I can get good foods right near me from my lfs.
Do you think crushing up the xtreme flakes I got will be fine?

My guppies and guppy babies LOVE the xtreme flake, and it powders/pulverizes really well in my fingertips. So yes! 

Actually, everyone loves the xtreme flake. And I find it sinks better than any other flake i've used, so you don't end up with tons of uneaten food left on top, if all you have are cories or etc. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/1/2023 at 1:30 PM, Guppysnail said:

This is perfect for guppy fry. I’ve done this exact thing with great results. Guppies are the King Kong vacuum cleaners of the fish fry world. As long as it’s nutritious and fits in their mouth you are good to go. 

That’s what I’ve noticed since keeping them😄

On 5/1/2023 at 1:33 PM, TOtrees said:

My guppies and guppy babies LOVE the xtreme flake, and it powders/pulverizes really well in my fingertips. So yes! 

Actually, everyone loves the xtreme flake. And I find it sinks better than any other flake i've used, so you don't end up with tons of uneaten food left on top, if all you have are cories or etc. 

yeah I haven’t had any of it get left to rot away even my stiphodon goby likes it and he normally just eats algae, biofilm and other micro things 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

UPDATE: Shortly after posting this I noticed some of my guppies was acting strange, Then one started getting a bent spine and died. Also I noticed after a female guppy gave birth she was super week and then died a couple hours later. After a couple weeks of trying to figure out what was happening and fish slowly dying I figured it was probably an internal problem so I treated the fish with paracleanse and salt.

This worked super well and the fish were doing amazing! They were all super active and breeding tons, the females could give birth without dying afterwords, The overall health of the fish was great.

But there was a new problem, all my plants took a really hard hit from the salt and meds. Almost all my crypts melted completely back and my anubias died. The only plants that I still had a tiny bit of was my crypt lutea and hornwort. So I decided to rescape the tank. I just removed everything, found some hardscape in storage and bought some plants from a guy off facebook.

 

The rescape day 1:

364201379_1121382185497648_2628418775226100418_n.jpg.413d97c3e8c7a58c19f60172adbec65c.jpg

The tank a couple months later:

IMG_3375.jpg.57e984ab32b4446e59467b22a2366772.jpg

The tank a couple more months later:

71815348626__724FA02A-2F4B-4BA9-B458-3227D9D34235.jpg.3d5634125789f640d488f8da75a7b4b5.jpg

Some more recent pictures of the tank:

IMG_3860.JPEG.8060ac32bb17a59e0d9e93c849c6bb22.JPEGIMG_4256.JPEG.fda0836418aba57994a0d3dd687504ba.JPEGIMG_4276.JPEG.99ae6c7ff8bd4c2904773200d241ded7.JPEG

About 6 months later my friend asked me if I wanted some of his orange neocaridina shrimp for free, so of course I said yes, he gave me 20 shrimp and they settled in very quickly and started to breed a week later. Now the tank has just been running very smoothly, balanced out very well with no almost zero algae. I do a 25% water change like once a month just to be safe even though it could probably go 3 months, I trim the hornwort in the back about every week and try to fertilize the plants when I remember to.

All the original 6 guppies have past away, but I have tons of new ones and I continue to get new fry every month. I've started to work on getting all my males to look the same because I got a male I really liked and I've been trying to get all my guppies to look like him and I've almost done it! I don't know if that counts as making your own strain but its a pretty cool looking guppy, they have short flame tails with tons of blue and green colors on the body with a tiger/snakeskin looking pattern. It still needs quite a bit of work but its getting there. I also am starting to get more color on my females so I'm gonna be working on that for the next while.

 

 

The shrimp:

IMG_3790.JPEG.ddd20f5e544abadc3ed36fbf7f6834cb.JPEGIMG_3882.JPEG.32a4b23e63e6f00aecb0df6438d7a005.JPEG

baby shrimp:

Amano shrimp:

Amano shrimp molt:

71687601274__DC8DD301-6DA0-4194-BD5A-86566A2E9430.JPEG.136cc5627c46780c111d36cb718c1866.JPEG

The guppies (its hard to capture the color on video but in person its amazing):

IMG_4241.JPEG.94e91287ffe711ae507d5e126391f704.JPEG

IMG_3799.JPEG

IMG_3595.JPEG

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...